New mural task force: 'We are going to save them'

May 2, 2013

During a tour by the newly formed Mural Preservation Task Force Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory's stance mimics that of a worker in artist Winold Reiss' mosaic mural of workers at US Playing Card and Champion Coated Paper which is now in gate area of closed Terminal 2 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. photographs The upcoming demolition of two unused terminals at the airport have put nine of the historic Union Terminal murals at risk for possible destruction. The task force is meeting to determine when, where, and how to move them; as well as how to fund the moves. The Enquirer/Glenn Hartong.

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Welcome to “These Old Murals.” The debut of the official effort to save nine of Union Terminal’s old industrial murals at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport took place Thursday afternoon with the initial meeting of the 24-member Mural Preservation Task Force.

The group of airport and Cincinnati officials, historic preservationists, engineers and community leaders met in the airport’s boardroom to discuss how to move the nine murals that stand in the way of the wrecking ball. Plans were made to set up five committees to oversee relocating the mosaics and paying for the project. Early estimates place the cost between $5 million and $7 million.

“These murals must be saved,” Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory declared at the start of the 90-minute session. That point was not up for debate. The same goes for where the murals are headed.

“They’re going back home to Cincinnati,” said Dr. O’dell Owens, Cincinnati State president. He favors placing them in Smale Riverfront Park. The murals can’t be left outside without being in climate-controlled cases. “We put a man on the moon,” Owens said. “We can do that.”

Emotions soared during a tour of the two closed terminals where the nine murals stand.

“Oh my, my,” sighed philanthropist Otto Budig Jr. as he gazed at murals dedicated to leather making and printing. “I’m shocked by their artistry. These are impossible to replace.”

But can they be moved? Installed for the train terminal’s 1933 opening, these 20-foot by 20-foot, eight-inch-thick, eight-ton slabs of nickel-sized tiles and tinted mortar were moved to the airport in 1973 before the train station’s concourse was wrecked.

“Concrete has a 100-year-lifespan,” noted Larry Roy, who presided over Fenton Rigging when that company conducted the 1973 move.

“The murals will have to be inspected and reinforced and properly crated before they’re moved again. But, it can be done.”

Mallory would not hear of “can.”

“It must be done!” he insisted.

Scanning the mural dedicated to soap making and showing three Procter & Gamble workers handling bars of Ivory soap, he noted: “These murals represent, not just industries, but real individuals. They show a history of the workers who built this city.

“They represent us,” he added.

“We are going to save them because we are Cincinnati. We care. That is what we do.”